


How A Hand Fits

by aintweproudriff



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Multi, but like they hold hands a lot, dutchie is an underrated ship, except that they kinda get together at the end, hand holding, i hate tagging can you tell, idk it's basically the story of the strike, mostly canon tbh, theres dutchie stuff tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 18:12:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11167320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: Holding hands is the best way to flirt with someone, apparently.The strike, as told by every time Jack, Davey, and Crutchie hold hands.





	How A Hand Fits

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue if this is any good or not. 
> 
> Also…I'm writing what I know because I only know about holding hands.

Jack was tactile. That, David had gathered from the second he saw him. What he hadn't figured out instantly was that Jack's hands were incredibly persuasive. 

David tried to run it over again in his mind; the purpose of becoming a newsboy was to get money, not to get political or involved with the other boys.   
And yet, the original plan didn't seem to matter with Jack talking about why they needed a union so passionately and standing so damn close and holding his hands like that. 

He had heard romantic ideas about swimming in someone's voice, or someone's eyes, but he had never heard of drowning in someone's hands.   
Jack's hands were coarse, but clutched so gently. They squeezed kindly, and David had already lost. 

"Well who don't need that?" Jack let go, throwing his hands up and walking away. 

"If you want to strike, the membership's got to vote," David shot out as one last try. He may as well have held a white flag in his outstretched hands. 

-

David hadn't even felt himself doing it. He made all sorts of excuses to himself later that day; he had been reaching for Les, he had lost his balance, he was reaching for Jack- no, wait, that wasn't much better. 

But in the moment that it had happened, when Katherine said they could make the front page, he had reached to grab Crutchie's hand. 

And Crutchie had taken his hand. 

Sudden warmth had flooded his nerves, all the way up his arms. Electric currents shot up through his body, landing in his brain. 

With Crutchie's hand in his, in the face of doing a terrifying thing, David stood a little taller. For only a second, he cold have taken on all of New York City with only the power of himself. 

New York City was one thing, though, and Jack Kelly was quite another. When Jack turned around to look at David and Crutchie, both boys dropped their hands to better receive Jack. 

He clapped them on their shoulders, narrowly missing fully embracing them. 

All the boys were shooed from the deli, and as he ran home with his brother, he carried a feeling of confidence with him, and forced the tingle in his hand to propel his legs forward. 

-

"You're still our brothers," David saw Jack take Crutchie's hand, and he smiled. He had felt like a live wire when holding Crutchie's hand, and had been forced to gasp for air when he held Jack's. That kind of power, he thought, would be enough to push them through what they needed to do.   
"And we will fight for you."

-

Fight they had, but it had t been enough. No amount of electricity or waves could have kept everyone safe. 

They had known the risk going into it, but Crutchie, the power source himself, having been taken away, felt like defeat in its worst form. 

-

There was no hand to hold. 

There was no power to push him forward. 

Seeing that front page photo, though, had been just enough of a recharge to keep him going. It was a jolt, but the energy couldn't last. 

-

When he met with Jack, after Jacobi's, he wanted nothing more than to take Jack's hand and persuade him as he had been persuaded.   
Yet David let Jack think it through himself. He waited. Until-

A wave crashed over him. 

"Get those kids to see,"

Jack grabbed his hand. 

"We're circling victory,"

Everything made sense. 

"And watch what happens." 

-

The fatal moment arrived all too soon. 

David watched Jack's hand, the same one that had short-circuited David's own brain, stop just before it hit Les's face. 

Once again, waves crashed over David.   
Only this time, the force knocked him away from Jack. 

"Davey-"

-

Hands, flying everywhere, throwing papes up and around the cellar, moving with barely a second to brush each other gently. 

Messages, passed along silently with a slight squeeze of a hand. 

Hope, blossoming somewhere it had previously died, growing with each movement. 

-

With the strike settled, the three boys put hands on shoulders, and moved as one to the penthouse in the sky. 

None of them spoke, all three of them reveling in the first peace they'd felt in days. 

Warmth in his hands, electricity in one and waves in the other, shot up each arm. All at once, David knew exactly where Jack and Crutchie were.   
Without opening his eyes, he squeezed their hands. 

He liked how their hands fit in his. 

-

There all three of them could have stood until morning, their hands perfectly together like a puzzle.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked it, and that you'll leave kudos and comments for me! :)


End file.
